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    Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
    Perhaps doing that in the 30s or even 1974 felt jarring and revolutionary, whereas in 2018 it just feels really sad and that’s why I’m struggling with it.
    Startling realisation, from seeing HP bracket those dates together here, that 1974 is now exactly as distant from us in 2018 as it was from 1930.

    Meanwhile, I'm still struggling to process the sight of a young Janet Street-Porter grooving away in those trousers and that silver coat. It all lends credence, mind, to the notion that she was always sort of just 'on the spot' in metropolitan circles, and therefore eased her way into the press and broadcast media by some kind of osmosis.

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      I think JSP's TV fame was regional (London-centric) because she was being parodied on Not The Nine O'Clock News by Pamela Stephenson even though nobody in my region had ever seen her. Danny Baker was another Londpon-centric name when he started doing Daz adverts and being Gazza's pal, although I knew of him as an NME writer and then latterly the first 6-0-6 presenter and doing the breakfast stint on Radio 5.

      There might be a North/South split in TV memories of the 1970s generally, although stuff like Corrie and Rising Damp obviously crossed over. Same with ITV football matches: Leeds were the only game in town circa 1974 in my region and teams like West Ham and Fulham seemed incredibly exotic, not weekly fare. When those teams met in the 1975 Cup Final, it was like watching two new sides, and the early start to the TV coverage was partly to familiarize yourself with unknown players (and a very rare glimpse inside Wembley). This also crosses over with the TV commentators thread. I got some and could not get others for regional, class and familiarity reasons.
      Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 10-09-2018, 11:51.

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        Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
        I think JSP's TV fame was regional (London-centric) because she was being parodied on Not The Nine O'Clock News by Pamela Stephenson even though nobody in my region had ever seen her. Danny Baker was another Londpon-centric name when he started doing Daz adverts and being Gazza's pal, although I knew of him as an NME writer and then latterly the first 6-0-6 presenter and doing the breakfast stint on Radio 5.
        This, very much - in fact they both got locally famous on the same (Six O'clock) show that most of the country didn't get (though I know from Baker's autobiographies that JSP had done a lot of other media before that show). I was too young to know Danny Baker from the NME so I probably first knew him as the host of Win Lose or Draw, as that was during the era that I had time and opportunity to sit round watching daytime game shows. I remember JSP being parodied by Pamela Stephenson, and on Kenny Everett, and even in a comic (like Whizzer and Chips type comic) without having a clue who they were on about.

        Similarly though, the first I knew of Anthony H. / Tony Wilson was as the host of The Other Side of Midnight, then realised he was behind Factory Records, and only later that he was a regional newsreader.

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          Originally posted by Various Artist View Post
          Startling realisation, from seeing HP bracket those dates together here, that 1974 is now exactly as distant from us in 2018 as it was from 1930.
          To clarify. Chinatown was released in 1974 but set in the 30s.

          Those sorts of time gaps are often surprising, even though they shouldn't be. It's simple math. I tell the teenagers I volunteer with that the the sixties were as far in the past when I was a teenager as my teenage years (85-92) are to them. And when I was that age, the 60s seemed really far away. And I don't think that's just because kids think everything before they remember is ancient history - though that too - but because youtube, spotify, digital photography, and a few other things make the 90s more accessible and feel more recent than the 60s did in the 90s. I think.

          And yet - and this brings it back around - 2001 doesn't feel all that dated except, as has been noted many times, the belief that we'd have sentient AI, space stations, and manned exploration of the outer planets by 2001. (IIRC, HAL 9000 was supposed to have come online in 1997!). And then in 2010, there's a whole USSR/USA cold war thing.
          Last edited by Hot Pepsi; 10-09-2018, 15:30.

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            Ah ok. I can deal with there being no real reason. It's just that when I was growing up there'd be all these old fellas hanging around who would always be kind of half appearing on television or at funerals, and then someone would whisper, he shot three members of the cairo gang on Bloody Sunday. this is better

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              Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
              I think JSP's TV fame was regional (London-centric) because she was being parodied on Not The Nine O'Clock News by Pamela Stephenson even though nobody in my region had ever seen her. Danny Baker was another Londpon-centric name when he started doing Daz adverts and being Gazza's pal, although I knew of him as an NME writer and then latterly the first 6-0-6 presenter and doing the breakfast stint on Radio 5.

              There might be a North/South split in TV memories of the 1970s generally, although stuff like Corrie and Rising Damp obviously crossed over. Same with ITV football matches: Leeds were the only game in town circa 1974 in my region and teams like West Ham and Fulham seemed incredibly exotic, not weekly fare. When those teams met in the 1975 Cup Final, it was like watching two new sides, and the early start to the TV coverage was partly to familiarize yourself with unknown players (and a very rare glimpse inside Wembley). This also crosses over with the TV commentators thread. I got some and could not get others for regional, class and familiarity reasons.
              When I lived in London (late 60s early 70s) JS-P was fashion editor of the Standard. I remember her getting a lot of grief for a piece on distressed clothing and disheveled hair headlined "The After the Rape Look."

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                When I lived in London (late 60s early 70s) JS-P was fashion editor of the Standard. I remember her getting a lot of grief for a piece on distressed clothing and disheveled hair headlined "The After the Rape Look."
                FFS. That is not ok, is it?

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                  No. Not even then.

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                    The WWE.

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                      Originally posted by adams house cat View Post
                      The WWE.
                      I can see the appeal as soap opera but can't understand people being into it. (A bit like soap operas)

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                        The Red Hot Chili Peppers

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                          They're a TV show now?

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                            Could you just imagine? Some kind of twisted, tuneless Saturday kids' show. With segments like Reading with Flea.

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                              Originally posted by adams house cat View Post
                              The WWE.
                              Same. I'm not especially interested in soap operas and if I were, I wouldn't enjoy one completely tethered to the business of a violent sport - or any sport. Because ultimately all the storylines have to be tied-up or run through the actual bouts in the ring. And that would appear to be a rather confining framing device, from the writer's point of view. As a kid, I had a number of friends who were really into WWE (then WWF) and what not, but I lost interest after a short while because I found comic books and what not to be a much better vehicle for the same sort of characters and action. And then and around that time my tastes were maturing, comics started to get a lot more interesting with much more interesting characters than just muscular people boasting and throwing cars at each other, so wrestling just seemed dumb.

                              I also don't like that it's so violent and that the violence isn't entirely fake insofar as it causes real head injuries and promotes very real drug abuse, and that causes very real long term damage to the athletes' bodies and brains. Unless something has changed in the few years since I last read about an ex-wrestler killing himself, the wrestlers are not unionized. That's insane. They should be part of the stuntperson's union or have their own.

                              It's also just really cheezy and the way it portrays women isn't very, umm, nuanced, to say the least.

                              But whenever I've heard interviews with the athletes that do it, I'm usually impressed by how thoughtful and self-aware they are. And there are a lot of very smart, high-functioning people that really enjoy it, so I can't be too judgemental, I suppose

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                                Originally posted by WOM View Post
                                The Red Hot Chili Peppers
                                Their cover of "Higher Ground" is one of my favorite tracks ever, but as far as I know, they never did anything as good as that in the subsequent 27+ years or wrote anything of their own in that league.

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                                  Originally posted by adams house cat View Post
                                  The WWE.
                                  I remember getting caught up in the hype when it first got kind of "big" here (we were the first family on the street with a Sky dish - somebody else already had a BSB squarial and Mam's always had a keeping up with the Joneses thing going on) but lost interest as soon as I found out it was pre-determined. That took about a fortnight... but then, I was only eight.

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                                    Originally posted by 3 Colours Red View Post
                                    I remember getting caught up in the hype when it first got kind of "big" here (we were the first family on the street with a Sky dish - somebody else already had a BSB squarial and Mam's always had a keeping up with the Joneses thing going on) but lost interest as soon as I found out it was pre-determined. That took about a fortnight... but then, I was only eight.
                                    Are there any “pro wrestling” circuits in Europe? The only ones I’ve heard of are in the US or Mexico.

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                                      There's a rather artisanal semi-pro circuit in France (where the sport is called catch), but the major promotions (in France, the UK and Germany) that I was aware were all touring WWE shows.

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                                        Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
                                        Their cover of "Higher Ground" is one of my favorite tracks ever, but as far as I know, they never did anything as good as that in the subsequent 27+ years or wrote anything of their own in that league.
                                        Yeah, that's my standard comment about them...that the only song of theirs that's listenable is a cover.

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                                          Originally posted by WOM View Post
                                          Yeah, that's my standard comment about them...that the only song of theirs that's listenable is a cover.
                                          They could have had a good career just doing covers of songs that needed a hotter bass line.

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                                            BTW, what made me think of Chinatown and wanting to watch it was hearing Kevin Pollak tell a story about Jack Nicholson telling a story that began with “So I’m doing this picture called Chinatown...”

                                            It starts around minute 79
                                            https://open.spotify.com/episode/1Dt...TouNhoAWFVMuzg

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                                              Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
                                              Are there any “pro wrestling” circuits in Europe? The only ones I’ve heard of are in the US or Mexico.
                                              There's quite a few that tour, but they're little more than Community centre events. World of Sport Wrestling got through a pilot earlier this year and has been on for the last 5 weeks or so. My 8 year old loves WWE and is a little into WOS.

                                              As a kid, right into my teens, I adored WWF. Would watch Raw and Smackdown every Friday and Saturday evening without fail. Now I sit and watch it with my 8 year old just so I can tell him how rubbish all the superstars are now compared to my day. The fact a few still appear now and then makes it something that we can both share as well.

                                              I haven't told him it's pre-determined yet though.

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                                                Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                                                There's a rather artisanal semi-pro circuit in France (where the sport is called catch), but the major promotions (in France, the UK and Germany) that I was aware were all touring WWE shows.
                                                There's a bunch of promotions round here - I'll often see flyers and posters pinned up on the "windows" of boarded-up shops.

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                                                  There used to be quite a big scene I presume, when wrestling was on ITV every Saturday afternoon, just after the football results, with Mick McManus, Giant Haystacks, Big Daddy, et al.

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                                                    Originally posted by ad hoc View Post
                                                    There used to be quite a big scene I presume, when wrestling was on ITV every Saturday afternoon, just after the football results, with Mick McManus, Giant Haystacks, Big Daddy, et al.
                                                    Twas before the football results surely

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